We had a short photo session at the church.  Here’s a couple with our sponsors:

We, along with our bridesmaids and groomsmen, headed to the Legion of Honor.

Our lovely bridesmaids:

Our dashing groomsmen, groom, and me:

The awesome and totally unplanned veil in action shots:

And just newlyweds:

The last image we mimicked from a few wedding photos I’ve seen while perusing the web.  Other than that, we just went with our photographer Daniel’s suggestions.

Did/do you have a few must-have poses and shots??

All photos courtesty of Daniel Galang Photography.

Besides the super late start, the ceremony went off without a hitch!  (Ok beginning super late is quite the hitch, but I’ll move on..)  All in all, there were just over 30 people that walked down the aisle starting with Justin and his parents.

The bearers stole the show:

That is, til Isabelle appeared (the only one of the three flowergirls to walk down the aisle):

Then it was my turn to walk down with my parents on hand:

I held my rosary with my bouquet as my “something old” and “something blue”.  The candles were lit by our sponsors Omid and Estella:

Justin’s cousin Stephanie did the reading:

After the Gospel reading and homily was an affirmation of support by our parents, grandparents, sponsors, and bridal party.  I originally wanted our principal sponsors to be more involved in the ceremony than just walk down the aisle.  I found the affirmation by browsing the web.  During the rehearsal, Pastor Harold suggested we include the parents, grandparents, and bridal party.  I really felt the love and support in hearing everyone we have chosen to be part of our wedding affirm.  We proceeded with our consent, vows, exchange of rings and coins, and lit the unity candle.

The rest of our secondary sponsors did their thing:

Justin and I then made an offering to the Blessed Virgin Mary with “Ave Maria” playing in the background.  After, we officially signed the marriage license, were pronounced husband and wife, and sealed the deal with our well-rehearsed first kiss!

Cheers all around!

I finally received the disc of my professional wedding day photos and am ready to share!  I’ll start my wedding day recaps with getting ready.  I woke up around 5am.  My bridesmaids ordered fruit and my family brought bread and peanut butter for breakfast (I made a sandwich for those getting their hair done).  Justin’s cousin/one of our veil sponsors Christina did my and my bridesmaids makeup.  My hairstylist Crystal got Starbucks for me (very sweet!).  She was able to style my hair perfectly the way I wanted!  Of course, the guys got ready with ease.  I just wish I gave them a tutorial on how to fold the pocket squares the night before.

Here’s the start of admiring my bouquet!

I’m glad there were images of my mom helping me get ready.  There’s a heartfelt symbology to it that I really wanted captured!

I loved seeing everyone get all dolled up.  It’s a great feeling to see your vision (the dresses, shoes, accessories) transform into reality in front of you!

Did you elect to get ready with your ‘maids?  Did you find it stressful or fun?

*All photos by Daniel Galang Photography.

It’s been nearly three months from my wedding day and I was reminded by my brother-in-law’s blog post what weddings should be all about.  In his blog, he writes about a conversation he had explaining wearing the white One band we gave out as favors:

“It was a giveaway for all the guests in my brother’s wedding.  Has something to do with U2 and stuff, which is my sister-in-laws favorite band I guess.  And something about charity. AIDS in Africa?  Poverty?  I dunno, I forget.  Anyway, seeing my brother get married was one of the proudest and happiest days of my life.  And I wear it in hopes that if I were to ever feel down or out, I can look at it, remember that day, and feel happy again… It’s my happy place. It makes me happy… My brother makes me happy.”

I don’t believe that my wedding day was all about me or me and Justin.  The acutal getting married part – yes, obviously – but I believe a wedding is all about family and friends.  Bringing a community of people who you love and love you in one space is such a beautiful and powerful thing.  It is more beautiful than the pink and cream fluffy flowers (indeed one of my favorite décor details at my wedding), Chiavari chairs and black candelabras I just refused to have a wedding without, and stationery that we spent countless hours on.

A lot of the decisions we made for the wedding were based on wanting our guests to have fun and feel important.  I made welcome bags with goodies for our guests that stayed in the blocked hotel.  They received a pleasant surprise when I knocked on their doors.  We made sure to select the right DJ to not only make sure the program flows well, but keep heads bobbing during dinner and the dance floor packed.  We chose individually-sized Bundt cakes for guests to take home if they chose (some guests later told me, “Clever idea!”).  I included as many photos as I could with guests in the montage because I wanted them to feel a part of the wedding (I mean, don’t you feel even just a little special when there’s a photo with you in a slideshow??).  And most importantly, the open bar.  If you are surrounded by people who rightly know how to have a good time and are just as happy for you to get married as you are, alcohol can definitely enhance the fun and happiness.

I’m not going to lie and say the day was perfect and ran smoothly.  It started out sort of rough with the ceremony delayed for probably close to 45 minutes (I still to this day don’t know the exact time).  Our cable car transportation broke down while on its way to bringing the guys to the church and my hairstylist didn’t even start on my hair until just over 30 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start.  Most brides would freak out, but I didn’t allow myself to stress out and frankly didn’t care anymore.  I would have been perfectly fine taking a taxi to the church so long as I got married. I took it positively as I walked down the aisle, thinking the church is packed because everyone that showed up late ended up showing up on time!  Our family, friends, Justin, and I never allowed the early setback to ruin our day because well, we indeed got married.

It truly melts my heart when I see family and friends sporting that white One band, making comments and getting excited about seeing photos and videos of the day, the groomsmen rocking their BluBlocker shades (or even their ties!) we gave as their gifts, and bridesmaids saying they plan to wear their dress again all after our wedding.  It’s a reminder that all those details seem so minor and petty in the grander scheme of things.  Our wedding was one of the “proudest and happiest days” of my and Justin’s lives mainly because our family and friends felt that way too.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted.  How’s married life you ask?  Wonderful   Ok well, it hasn’t changed much since we already live together but even then it was wonderful so I’m sticking to my answer.  Anyway, we got a lot of cards from our wedding:

But my favorite one is probably this one from a family friend:

Not only is it personalized with “g <3 j”, but it’s made with paper from my wedding invitation!  Super cute and creative!

Official Dress Reveal Part 2: Finally getting MY dress in AND the alterations process.

I was greeted by Desiree at Mon Amie Bridal.  I was anxious to try on the dress that was made for me!  ”The one”, of course, needed alterations – here you can see some bunching in the mid-section:

Needed alterations were DEFINITELY visible at the back:

I mentioned before that my sister suggested I try on a cathedral-style veil at the bridal salon and these pictures pretty much sealed the deal!

I took the dress home and a month or two later, I went back to Mon Amie for my first alterations appointment where I was then greeted by Jenny.  Oh Jenny – she is a Godsend to say the least.  She figured out how to remove the bunching in the front and big gap at the back without compromising the details that made me fall in love with the dress.

I wasn’t too picky about the bustle style so I just let Jenny do her thing.  French bustle:

Jenny served as sort of a fashion design consultant.  We loved and trusted her so much, my mom, sister, and I went to her house for alterations to their dresses and my reception dress.  Jenny recommended what bra and underwear we should use for the best cleavage.  She suggested accessories and hairstyles.  She even showed us how to walk down the aisle and pose for pictures!

I couldn’t imagine going anywhere else to go shopping and get alterations done for my dress.  It must have been fate for Mon Amie to pair me with shorties like myself.  Vicki, my bridal consultant, and Jenny, my tailor/fashion consultant/Godsend, were AMAZING to work with.  They are true examples of what customer service is all about!  THANK YOU Mon Amie!!!

FYI, I have Jenny’s contact information for anyone wanting their non-bridal gowns or dresses professionally altered to their body.  She is based in Orange County and specializes in formal wear and catering to us shorties out there!

Official Dress Reveal Part 1:  Going back to when I say yes to the dress where you actually see the dress!!  Without further ado:

I think what set this dress apart from other lace dresses are the beading and lace details.  I felt like it accented my best features and made me feel sexy and beautiful.

Lace details:

Lace train detail:

It’s a Pronovias Ideal from their 2006 (I think) collection.  Pronovias is based in Spain and known for amazing yet affordable dresses.  Next up, the fittings!

I’ve mentioned a little bit about my Maid-of-Honor’s dress and have yet to mention the bridesmaids dresses that were only finished a few days before the wedding.  A couples months after getting engaged, I asked my college friend Aimee if she can sketch some designs for my bridesmaids dresses.  I really LOVE Sarah Seven dresses but they are way more expensive than I could ever ask my bms to pay for (and more than I would want to pay myself).  I wanted all the girls’ dress designs to be different but made with the same material.  Aimee came up with 8 sketches and I had my bms pick which ones they liked best and make suggestions as how to modify it to their liking. I then met with my seamstress and showed her the modified sketches and went to LA’s Garment District to find the perfect gray chiffon material for the dresses.  The best images I could find of the final product was in my highlight video:

You may know the shoe story – the shoes looked gorgeous with the dresses and even more so with the bouquets.  You also may notice their fashionable necklaces.  This was part of their gift as a bridesmaid purchased from Petite Peanut Boutique:

They were also given teal shawls I purchased from Target and teal clutches from Poppy Punch:

Don’t my bridesmaids look amazing??  I may be a little bias in saying I have the most beautiful bridesmaids.  I didn’t cry at all on my wedding day, but I almost shed a tear at how happy I was that they all looked so beautiful.  Thank you Aimee for the designs and for all your support of Simply Chic and throughout my wedding planning!!!  Please check out Aimee’s awesome blog swellmayde!

Hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July weekend!  It’s been a few weeks now since I married the love of my life.  Not much has changed since the wedding, but I’m loving married life!  I have yet to blog about all my DIY/semi DIY projects, the bridesmaid and groomsmen outfits, wedding party gifts, recaps, etc.  I’ll blog about that in due time.  For now, I’ll share a little sneak peak by miCha Videography:  http://vimeo.com/25699619.  Enjoy!

Well folks, we’re less than five days away from the big day!  I’m taking a break from packing to… okay that’s a lie because I haven’t started yet…  I’m going to start packing right after I finish this post.  Anyway, after six years of dating and sixteen months of being engaged, I will marry the love of my life, my best friend, and soulmate.  Gag, I know, but I couldn’t be more thrilled and honored.

So, I’ll leave you with this picture – almost ready to head to the Bay Area!

Here we go to our next adventure!